TO: Interested Parties

FROM: Mark McCullough, SEIU

RE: SEIU's Massive Ground Campaign for Obama, Pro-Working Family Candidates

I wanted to quickly share something from this morning's USA Today piece Groups spend millions bypassing TV, radio" by Matt Kelley:

"Although political radio and TV ads get the most attention, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that independent political groups are spending millions of dollars in the presidential campaign on canvassing, direct mail, live and automated phone calls, e-mails and text messages....

"Much of that advantage is thanks to the Service Employees International Union, which poured more than $4.8 million into door-to-door canvassing since the conventions, FEC records show. Anna Burger, SEIU's secretary-treasurer, said the union has 'thousands of members (knocking) on the doors.'"

(http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-10-23-indygroups_N.htm)

We have 3,000 SEIU members, staff and local leaders off the job and in the field working on the campaign. Nurses, janitors, child care providers and other workers are volunteering after work and on weekends to ensure Barack Obama, Joe Biden and pro-working family candidates win on Election Day.

If you are planning to get into the field to report on GOTV efforts in the next 11 days, SEIU can put you in touch with workers on the doors and phones in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Please give us a call at 202-730-7283 to set something up.

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